Plastic Sword Upgrade

Materials:

cheap plastic sword

acrylic paint

Sometimes you can find some real jewels at the dollar store. They often have great detail in the moulding of the item, but finish it so cheaply that you pass it up. DON'T let a bad finish make you dismiss the potential of an item. And even more importantly, an extra 15 minutes can turn a cheap little prop into something pretty cool.

Here's the $1 sword I bought. Neat design, but obviously not very nice looking (all one colour: silver).

I put a tiny bit of white paint on my paint brush and lightly applied it to everything on the protruding surfaces, avoiding creases and crevices.

The painted (after) pictures were taken with the light on (hence the overhead yellow hue) in an attempt to let you see the paint better.

The handle is my favourite. Darkest in the crevices, lighter in the middle (dry-brushed so the dark brown shows through), and light yellow on the highest peaks of the edges.White on the bone parts to pake the crevices and cracks pop.

The sword, after lightly dry brushing some colour onto it, looks less cheap. WHAT a difference it makes. Just follow the edges they have already made for you: low levels and creases are dark, and higher levels are light.